Lovers & Fighters: Prints by Latino Artists in the SAMA Collection

Lovers & Fighters: Prints by Latino Artists in the SAMA Collection highlights works featuring imagery and subjects related to concepts of love, power, and struggle. 

Romantic couples, heart motifs, boxers, and wrestlers evoke “lovers” and “fighters” and serve as points of departure to explore these seemingly opposing concepts. However, the prints on view reframe and expand upon those subjects, offering nuanced interpretations of emotions that go beyond stereotypes of romance and violence.

The focus on printmaking also demonstrates the medium’s influence in Latino art history—from politically engaged works produced at the Taller de Gráfica Popular printmaking collective in 1940s Mexico City to Chicano activism in America during the ’60s and ’70s and today’s community-based studios, including Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles and Coronado Studio in Austin. The medium’s capacity to produce multiple prints enables accessibility to a broad audience while its ability to capture bold, graphic imagery provides a resounding platform for the artist’s voice.